I work in publishing and I like to read things. Herewith: free association on books, nice things I ate, publishing, editing, and other nice things I ate.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

why facebook is extremely interesting

You guys know everything about me... but I didn't even know things as basic as names (or blog identities) for some of the lurkers who've come out of the woodwork with facebook! Also, now I know re: frequent commenters what you do, what you like, what you look like, etc. It's REALLY cool!

25 comments:

I've been "managing" a Facebook page for a small poetry press I do some work for, but don't have one of my own yet.

Hard to say why, exactly. But it sometimes feels like I don't give enough time and attention to the handful of "connections" I've got in real life -- keeping tabs on several dozen (or more) "friends" online, all at once (as I'd feel obliged to), just scares me as a potentially enormous time sink, for potentially infinitesimal benefit.

I can understand the appeal of putting faces to names and so on, as you describe here. But won't that wear off? What do you see your FB presence giving you that (say) your blog, professional associations, and so on don't give you?

(That sounds like a gruff challenge, not meant that way. Just trying to figure it all out.)

JES--it's really interesting, actually, just because I have no idea how many people read my blog. I've learned this way that a lot of people who don't log in or comment are ongoing lurkers, and it's just nice to have some reciprocity in relations.

Does that sound funny? It's just something I've felt bad about before--a lot of people know a lot about me, and it seems unfair that I don't know them as well.

And, Moon Rat, from my blog dashboard I got the stats that your blog has 115 known followers. That's not counting regular lurkers or occasional visitors who haven't outed themselves as an official follower. I don't suppose there's any way of tracking that.

There is a widget somewhere on Blogger (Under layout - add a gadget, I think)which allows you to show who your followers are.

Yeppers, facebook's where it's at... I love finding out more about my cyber - and virtual - freinds. Though my facebook circle is smallish (sigh) cuz I don't have oodles of time to mine the data, it IS a fun circle and a most convenient way to keep up with folks. Glad you're my 'friend'! Peace, Linda